A family who paid hundreds of pounds to stay at a Moray holiday park revealed yesterday that five people had approached them claiming to own their rented caravan.
Mother-of-two Julie Cunningham, 40, is one of several summer visitors innocently caught up in a major fraud investigation over ownership of static caravans at the Silver Sands site in Lossiemouth.
The park’s former sales consultant, Neale Rothera, and his girlfriend, Shona Walters, were questioned by police on Friday after the owners reported “discrepancies” with a cheque. They were later released without charge.
The holiday venue is owned by the Green Parcs company, which bought it in 2007.
Its directors contacted the police after two complaints about a cheque and then flew to Lossiemouth to deal with the investigation personally. They spent more than five hours with officers investigating alleged fraud.
Some people claimed they had paid up to £10,000 for a caravan as an investment, intending to rent it out, only to find later that it did not appear to belong to them.
In other cases, caravans were allegedly sold on without their owners knowing.
The directors also heard from people who had bought caravans for cash and received handwritten “receipts” on compliments slips, which may not be valid.
Others paid with cheques which did not go through the company’s accounts.
Yesterday two directors, Tej Maini and Briju Ghelani, were still at the site holding talks with furious owners and confused holidaymakers.
Miss Cunningham, 40, of Glenview Drive, Falkirk, arrived on Saturday with her 70-year-old mother Elizabeth and children Keiron, 14, and 11-month-old Codi.
They paid about £500 in advance for a week’s stay.
Yesterday, she said people had starting arriving at the caravan, claiming they owned it. One said they were going to change the locks.
Miss Cunningham is refusing to move, however, despite being offered another static caravan on the site.
She said: “It has spoiled our holiday. We are innocent people who paid to stay here. I’ve been checking the windows and doors when we are inside the caravan in case someone else says they own it.”
Another victim of the alleged scam is the charity Kidney Support Scotland.
Founder Margaret Winney claimed Mr Rothera had donated a caravan to the organisation to allow dialysis and transplant patients to have a short break there.
Yesterday, she discovered the company directors knew nothing about it.
Mrs Winney had a meeting with them in the morning and was told a patient who was in the caravan had to be moved off the site.
The charity then had to find about £400 for the Edinburgh-based patient to finish their holiday elsewhere.
Yesterday Mr Maini and
Mr Ghelani sought to reassure people that nobody would be “thrown off” the site, but admitted it was a difficult situation for the company.
“If people are not found to be the rightful owner of the caravans they are not entitled to stay for free,” he said.
Mr Ghelani said a stock-take was under way and they would “do their best” to sort out the individual cases.
Mr Rothera and Ms Walters refused to comment last night.
A Grampian Police spokesman confirmed the fraud probe is continuing.